MedLabMaven

Thursday, 22 March 2018

I’ve taken the quite
long route to my current position as a MPH student at the University of
Waterloo. I first started my post-secondary education in 2007 and graduated in
2011 with a B.Sc in Microbiology and a minor in Chemistry. I always enjoyed
science in high school and was interested in microbiology and this felt like
the best subject for me. I found myself gravitating towards the infectious
disease courses and during my time in the program, we had one of the biggest
flu pandemics since the Spanish flu in 1918, Swine H1N1. On top of the swine flu
outbreak, Maple Leaf foods had their listerosis outbreak leading to a lot of
discussion and lectures on bio safety and microbiology for public health.

After completing my
undergraduate degree, I knew I wanted to take what I learned and apply it in a
clinical setting to help people which led me to Medical Laboratory Science. I
moved to Toronto to attend The Michener Institute which opened my eyes to many
of the different people involved in healthcare system beyond the typical
professions. I did not know how regulated and technical laboratory testing was
until I undertook this program and came out with a great appreciation for
allied health professionals. Inspired by the program, I spent many hours
volunteering to advocate for lab professionals to raise awareness for the
profession and its role in the healthcare landscape on my blog medlabmaven.com.

Outside the lab, I try
to utilize my social media to bridge the gap between the laboratory and other
professions. We are often regarded as a “black box” where samples go in and
results come out but we are highly educated professionals that can be of great
help with decision-making in health care. I have had many interactions with
other professions not realizing the depth of the lab profession and the type of
work that is performed. I like to use my platform to share what I can about the
lab and hope to spark some new ideas and considerations for public health.

I have been involved
with my professional society, the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory
Science (CSMLS) for many years. I helped create the Ambassador program to bring
lab professionals into schools and universities across Canada to share more
about what the laboratory does and raise our profile in healthcare.I acted as a lab representative on national
lobby days speaking with members of the Federal Government about shortages in
health care in rural and remote communities and the role of laboratory testing
in health care. With the aging population, the health care system is going to
be stretched thin and will be a large public health issue in the coming years. These
experiences allowed me to address gaps in our current system, see social
inequities and push me to want learn more in an MPH program so I can apply my
perspective to make changes to help Canadians.

Upon graduation, I was
thrilled to accept my current position working as a Medical Laboratory
Technologist with Public Health Ontario. This is a dream position of mine that
marries my passion for microbiology and infectious disease with my technical
skills as a technologist. Working in a public health laboratory allows me to
work on many different infectious disease outbreaks like influenza, norovirus
and tuberculosis and help generate the data used to make public health
decisions. It really piqued my interest and I found myself trying to understand
how decisions were made at health units or on outbreak reporting. After many
years of staring out influenza outbreaks, I knew I wanted to take what I’ve
learned in the lab and help apply it on a larger scale in public health which
helped bring me to apply to the MPH program.

I chose to attend the
MPH program at University of Waterloo as it is unique as it allows you to
complete the entire program online (minus 2 two-week session on campus). They
focus on having students with professional experience, which was a huge draw
for me as I am able to work with students from a vast variety of professions
from Doctors to Analysts to NGO workers all across Canada. I have enjoyed my
courses in epidemiology as it’s been great to see what all of my hard work in
the lab gets used for! I have also been surprised by how much I am interested
in Health Policy and Health Economics and I am hoping to explore these areas
more and take all my program has to offer.

It’s hard to know
where this MPH will take me but I am sure I will be able to utilize my
experience in the laboratory in some way. I want to continue to advocate for
lab professionals and use my experience to find creative ways to collaborate
with multiple professions in public health. There is a lot of untapped knowledge
out there and we need to use it to create solutions for the health of all Canadians.

Monday, 5 March 2018

*I originally wrote this post for another blog that ended up not being published. I discovered it while going through my archives and didn't want it to go to waste!*

On May 22th,2015 I had the honour of speaking at
the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science’s conference, LabCon 2015,
in Montreal, QC. The journey how I got
to speaking as a new MLT was large in part to the great support I received from
colleagues and my time as a student at The Michener Institute.

I first had the idea of presenting about social media for
lab professionals after the response I received online. I have always been
extremely active on social media and in 2012, I decided to start my blog,
MedLabMaven to raise awareness about the med lab profession. When I entered the Med Lab Program, I realized
how hidden we were in the health care world and wanted to raise my voice and
share how important we are. Throughout the years, I have received many emails
from students, lab professionals and other healthcare professionals who have
come across me on social media and thanked me for being a voice online for the
profession.

After discussing with some colleagues and realizing lab
professionals wanted to get online – I submitted my proposal to the CSMLS.
Since I was a new tech, I didn’t think I had anything to present but I was
thrilled to find out I had been selected as one of the session presenters! This
shows that just because you’re a “new tech” or even a student doesn’t mean you
can’t share what you’ve learned and be seen as an expert in your field.

I designed my presentation to be less of a “social media
101” and more about what I have done online, how they have been successful and
how you can use them to be successful too. I wanted to bring concrete examples
of how lab professionals can use social media to reach out and expand their
online network as well as raise awareness for the profession. From Blogging and Twitter to Youtube and
Instagram, I shared my posts, photos and how we can bring lab professionals
into the spotlight and highlight our work.

From the reception I received after the presentation, I can
tell this was a valuable topic to speak on. I had many people come up and say
how they were inspired and wanted to get online right away. I even had a few
let me know they had shared some of my posts online or had seen my video! Many
said they hope the new lab professionals entering the field are engaged and
want to get involved as well – even if it’s just slowly. That’s the great thing
about social media – there are no rules. You can post as much as you want or as
little as you want but the fact you are out there sharing your story is what
matters. We make a difference in healthcare and it’s time we get out of the
shadows and start the discussion.

Speaking at Labcon 2015 was definitely one of the highlights in
my short career and I hope to present at many more conferences. I encourage you to start to get involved in
your profession early and be a voice for your profession - whether through
social media, conference or at your workplace!

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

So you’ve just finished your interview for the perfect lab
position and now you’re at the end where you get asked by the interviewer the dreaded “Do you have
any questions for me?”

As an interviewee, you should always answer YES.

Nothing is worse than saying “not at this time” or “no” – no
matter how amazing and thorough the interviewer is.There is always something more you can expand
on and show how interested you are in the position and workplace. But what can
you ask that sounds like a well-thought out question? I've thought up some of my favourites below:

1. What types of professional development
opportunities do you have?

As a MLT, you know we are required by license
to obtain a certain number of learning hours per year to maintain your license.
It’s a great way to find out what types of seminars and overall learning
culture the workplace provides. Do they have their own learning system? Weekly
Lunch and Learns? Are you going to have to be proactive and attend courses
yourself or will your future workplace fulfill that requirement for you?

2. Do you offer any educational funding to
employees?

This is another great way to find out how
invested the workplace is in education opportunities.Some workplaces have a yearly grant for an employee
to attend a conference like LabCon or CSM which is a nice bonus for a free (or discounted) vacation coupled with a pile of learning hours. Others have a yearly allowance for
each employee to attend classes or workshops to help you grow in your career.

Sunday, 11 January 2015

How fast the time goes! It seems like just yesterday I was
frantically studying and worrying about jobs, exams and life after school. I
wanted to recap how the year has gone and where I am in my career after degree
completion.

I officially graduated from the Medical Laboratory Science
program at Michener on January 31st, 2014 and I wrote the CSMLS exam
on February 20th, 2014. Between January 31st and February
20th, actually squeezed in two job interviews at private labs - one for a permanent
part-time position as a Microbiology MLT and one at my clinical placement for
permanent full-time in Histology.

Monday, 1 September 2014

So I took some time last night to answer some common questions about the Medical Laboratory Science profession and how to decide if it's the right program for you!

I also talk about my experience in the program, in clinical and how I got interested in being an MLT myself. The video is a bit on the long side (13 minutes) but I wanted to make sure I covered these topics thoroughly.

Hopefully you enjoy and find it informative. If you have any other questions, let me know. I might do a round two video as well!